About the presentation

Expert panelists will discuss the rising rate of divorce in China, Japan, and Korea, drawing on both qualitative and quantitative perspectives.

Light refreshments will be served.

Panel Speakers

Allison Alexy is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Anthropology at The University of Virginia. She holds a BA from the University of Chicago and a PhD from Yale University, both focused on cultural anthropology. Her research centers on divorce, romance, and family lives in contemporary Japan. With Richard Ronald, she co-edited Home and Family in Contemporary Japan: Continuity and Transformation and is currently working on a monograph entitled "Divorce and the Romance of Independence in Contemporary Japan".

Jing Lin is Professor of International Education Policy at the University of Maryland, College Park. She received her doctoral degree from University of Michigan (Ann Arbor) in 1990. Jing Lin has done extensive research on Chinese education, culture and society. She is the author of four books on Chinese education: The Red Guard’s Path to Violence (1991), Education in Post-Mao China (1993), The Opening of the Chinese Mind (1994), and Social Transformation and Private Education in China (1999). Her fifth book related to Chinese education, is entitled Portraits of 21st Century Chinese Universities: In the Move to Mass Higher Education, co-edited by Ruth Hayhoe, Jun Li, Jing Lin, and Qiang Zha.

Hyunjoon Park is the Korea Foundation Associate Professor of Sociology and Education at the University of Pennsylvania. He is also affiliated with the Population Studies Center at Penn. He received his Ph.D. degree from the University of Wisconsin-Madison in 2005. He is interested in social stratification and family in comparative perspective with a focus on Korea and other East Asian countries. Specifically, Dr. Park has studied how the effects of families and schools on children's education are mediated by national contexts of structural features of educational systems and state involvement in family welfare. In one of his recent projects, Dr. Park examines recent family changes and their implications for children's education and well-being in East Asia. Besides numerous articles and book chapters, Dr. Park co-edited the volume Globalization, Changing Demographics, and Educational Challenges in East Asia.